Announcement

Aidan and Ella have an announcement:)

Aces

Ace #1 on left, #2 on right, feel free to call Mike on #2 to confirm it:)





The Destroyer I had actually just bought to replace one I had thrown into a lake earlier in the day...worked out nicely though.



Site of first ace at Johnny Roberts Memorial DGC






Basket straight ahead




Site of #2 and #3





Basket straight ahead through trees, actually sets up nice for my sidearm throw.





#3 in the basket when I got up there



When I got to being up 56 shots on Mike on the year, that started to lose much meaning...so moved on to trying to get a hole in one. Would have been good with one, but ended up getting three last week. Probably should have bought a lotto ticket with that kind of luck. Probably won't be playing as much anymore, still fun and all, but have covered all the goals I really had for that, next up, who knows, might pick up my guitar again and start playing again on a regular basis. Basketball and dodgeball season is starting up again, so trying to find teams for that.






Sister Carrie was out here a couple weeks ago, stopped by on way back from Yellowstone, sucks that they only were here a day, but had lots of fun. Caught the first half of the Iowa/Maine football game, played some sand volleyball, and went downtown in attempt to go to a pub quiz, only to find the bar taken over by Missouri fans watching their football game, and then instead grabbing some food and drinks at the Celtic then heading home for some Wii action.


Yep, that's Carrie

Wish I had kept rolling to the end. She may seem sweet, but has violent tendencies...

Time to catch up

So, sorry for all those that may have been checking this, desperately waiting for my updates...but there's just too much to do out here other than type on a computer. We did have two days of rain last week, just in time for the Muddy Buddy, but other than that, nothing but sun for three months. Anyway, updates... work is going good, though we have a couple people leaving in the next couple weeks, so that should be fun when the kids find out and act out not knowing how to say they will miss them. I should be getting at least one morning shift/one more night off, so that will be good.

Disc golf, still beating Heaton, at 39 shots now. Current goal is to finally get a hole in one. Have hit the side of the basket twice in the past couple of weeks, that is frustrating.

Did the Urban Assault Ride back in July with a girl Mike works with, Leslie. Bike about 20-25 miles around Denver hitting 8 checkpoints along the way. Each checkpoint has an obstacle of some sort at it. Way fun, and there was an inflatable water slide, big wheel tricycles, and cold beer at the end of it.

Did the Muddy Buddy this past weekend with Mike. Bike/run race where the team has one bike, one person running, one person biking, and you switch off at checkpoints with similar obstacles to get past. As I mentioned above, it rained the two days before. Normally the mud pit at the end you have to crawl through is the muddy part, but the whole course was nice and muddy. Definitely had to walk your bike through several parts.

Did my 14er for this summer, hiked up Mt. Evans with my volleyball friend Jill. As some of you may know, you can drive to within a hundred feet of the top. We did not do this, instead hiking from Summit Lake up Mt Spalding and across the West Ridge that connects it to Evans. Was a sad day for the Lumina, however. Heading up into the mountains and the higher elevation, the engine started to majorly struggle. Around 9,000 ft it was overheating and couldn't go any further. Had to let it cool off for 30 minutes or so, drive back down and take her car back up to the trailhead. Runs ok back down here in the city, but no trips into the mountains until I get that figured out. Bike still runs good though, so that's all that matters I guess.

Picture time!!!


Big wheelin'


I had just smoked some 7 year olds on the course, oh yeah!!!


Not actually in this picture, but this was my favorite obstacle, great ab workout. Other ones were kayaking, keg walk standing on mini kegs, paper boy route on small bike and jousting

Post race, not yet to the beer garden


Cleaning off in the res. Cold, but very refreshing.


In the pit



USGS marker, we made it!



Jill and me at the top


Weird rock in the middle


Yellow-bellied Marmot, they so cute

Road Trip

So I went on a little bike ride the other day, managed about 30 miles and made it out almost to Golden. Still haven't gotten the road bike fixed up, so was on the mountain bike. 30 miles on a mountain bike, good workout, lots of sore muscles the next day. Bunch of pictures below from the ride.

One of my old AmeriCorps buddies, Carolyn, had a layover on her flight back to Oakland, so went out to see her the other day. Good to see you again, but could ya make it here for more than a half hour next time?

Speaking of reasons for people to come visit...The Mile High Music Festival is coming up in July. A two day deal, with a pretty good lineup: Dave Matthews Band, OAR, Bob Schneider, Martin Sexton, Michael Franti, Josh Ritter, Ingrid Michaelson, The Black Crowes, Spoon, Tom Petty, Gavin Degraw, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Citizen Cope, and a whole bunch more. (Sorry I didn't put links for all, runnin out of time and gotta get to work.) Tickets are a bit pricey, but way cheaper than if you ever saw them all separately. Anyway, it's July 19-20. Any and all let me know if you are interested.


Where a good chunk of my disposable income is going, the main REI here in Denver

Set of rapids outside the REI, for when I can get a kayak


Next stop, a quick visit with Mr. Heaton at the new CC office

One of the many disc golf courses here in Denver and off of bike paths


Cuz the parents like to see pictures of me too


Just some mountains



A brief visit with CQ at the airport

Correction from the Editor...

My disc golf season lead over Mike Heaton was previously listed as +24. It is now +28. Sorry for the confusion, please make changes to your daily lives accordingly...

This is in no way a knock on the Lumina/Animul

So I had biked into the main REI (outdoor store, mom) here in Denver and as I was checking out, the girl saw my helmet and asked if my bike was my main mode of transportation. Thought about it and decided that sounded like a good idea. There's a good trail system and my apartment is so centrally located that everything is pretty close to me. Work is about a 5 mile ride on trails and residential streets, so have been doing that the past week. Hope to just keep my car parked for most of the summer minus any trips into the mountains.

Speaking of disc golf...there's also a course a short ride from my place. So far on the year I am 24 shots up on Mike Heaton. He has had a number of excuses over the rounds from throwing his driver into a lake to his son hiding his putter, but it is clear so far who is superior at frolfing (folfing to some...)

Currently at work covering part of the overnight shift. This is actually as boring as you might think it is. Doing the kids laundry is the highlight of the night. Next week I do the entire overnight one day, so you should look forward to a incoherent post in a week from 5 in the morning. I may actually cry from boredom that night. On the bright side, it means I get Wednesday off too this coming week and my old volleyball team needs a sub that day, so will get to play some more sand vb.

Parents are coming out in a couple weeks and sister is coming in August. That leaves a whole lot of other open times for the rest of you to come out here. My boss is pretty good about time off requests as long as there is enough advanced warning to find subs.

Less than 2 hours to go...off at 3:30, 30 minute ride home, asleep by 4:02:)

Til next time...

Yeah!!! A Job!

So after a couple months of searching, Chris is back in the world of the employed. It's at a residential treatment center called Mount Saint Vincent Home. Will be working on a boys unit, ages 6-12. Pretty similar to the work I was doing back at Orchard Place in Des Moines, though a little younger. Going in to fill out paperwork tomorrow and then may start as soon as this weekend with the training. Not sure my exact schedule yet, but will be mostly evenings and some weekends. Bye bye social life...They do have similar positions working with the kids during the days at the campus school, but they filled all those prior to me applying. Will be keeping an eye out for any of those openings. Got my foot in the door now at least.

Have signed up for the Muddy Buddy with Mike Heaton this coming summer up in Boulder. Fun little bike/run race with obstacles and mud pits. Started working out and biking for that this week. My new apartment is a block and a half away from the Cherry Creek trail which is connected to all the bike paths in the area. It also runs right past the flagship REI here in Denver, about a 10 minute bike for me, that could present a problem to attempting to save my new income. Short ride to a number of grocery stores and Wash Park, big park with lots of summer activities including a number of grass volleyball games. Love my location and have a feeling will really enjoy it this summer.

Speaking of summer, was in the upper 70s the last two days. Of course, that means it is 30 and snowing today...Another day of this then back up into the 60s by the weekend.

Had the semifinals of my basketball league tournament this last Monday. We were missing one of our better guys and the team we played had some new players we hadn't seen during the regular season...brought in the ringers for the tournament...close, but lost by 4 in the end. Didn't feel too bad about it though, the final was scheduled for that night later on and with our depleted roster, playing another 40 minutes would have been rough. Hopefully will get to play with my team this next season as well, but waiting to see what my schedule will be at work.

On the topic of cutest nieces and nephews in the world, check out the Friedel Kids. I especially like the video of Aidan dancing at the bottom of the page:)


Ok, so it's not the greatest, but I can see the mountains out my window. I don't care if you have to squint, I can see them, so just back off...

One last pic of Japhy at my old place in Boulder. Miss those dogs

Better week on one front at least

So had a pretty decent week on the sporting front. My basketball team won again on Monday night despite being 0 for 20 something from 3 point range where we are usually pretty good. Even got a dunk in the game:) Was cutting through the lane and got a pass from my teammate with the intention of taking it up strong to finish. Must have had my Wheaties that day cuz I was able to catch it and go straight up one handed for the score. Also come to find out that my teammate that grew up about 20 minutes away from me knows my sis, Carrie, and they've even gone to a concert together, small world. Tuesday and Wednesday had some of my best nights ever hitting in volleyball, even beating one of the top teams in our league. Thursday we had our end of season dodgeball tournament. First game I played, threw three balls and got three people out including the last person. Had another game where it came down to me against 5 people and I took them all out. Played real good, but ended up in 4th. Double elimination, lost the first time to the defending champs who won again, and then lost a close one to the 2nd place team which we had actually beaten for their first loss of the night earlier on. Good times though.

Sent the ol' resume in to a couple places and just waiting to hear back now.

It was 75 degrees here yesterday, breaking the old record by 4 degrees. Then snowed 3 inches overnight and was in the low 30s today with a cold wind, go figure:)

Well that was fun...

So we had a bit of wind this morning. 40 mph sustained, 72 mph gusts (thank you National Center for Atmospheric Research, conveniently located here in Boulder). Another company had their fence blown over, but ours was fine, so everything appeared to be ok when I got to the site. As I am setting up for the day a guy comes up to me and says some of our blueboard (1" styrofoam insulation that adds an R-5 value that we get from Dow for free) is in his yard. So I'm thinking, a couple chunks got blown away, no big deal. I take a closer look, an entire bundle (72 4x8 ft sheets) gone. They were wrapped in plastic to hold it all together, but somehow it must have gotten ripped on something and the blue foam carnage began. 2304 sq ft of foam scattered over a 5-6 block area. Of course, that is just the area we searched during our cleanup. I did see a couple pieces across the highway 5 blocks away in some evergreens. After that line of trees though, there is nothing east of there for the foam to catch on, so who knows how far away some ended up. All told, it took about 8 of us just under two hours to catch it all and bring it back to our trailer to store it out of the wind. So yeah, fun stuff.

More pics of the little ones

The two of them




Told you he doesn't mind where he sleeps

Been a while

Aidan isn't picky about where he falls asleep


Mom and Ella taking a siesta


How not to shim a window. Pic is a little screwy because my computer still doesn't like to read my memory card too well. The middle and right side of the window had just about as many shims.


Recent snow fall. The Lumina is buried off to the right. Actually had to shovel off the car before work that day.


Since the last update, not much new has been going on (hence it's been a while). Went home for Christmas for a little over a week. Got to see baby Ella for the first time, most easy going baby ever. Sleeps through just about everything (a must with big brother Aidan being the noise-maker extraordinaire that he is) and doesn't seem to get upset too often. Aidan has become quite the talker since the last time I had seen him before I moved. He was a little too unsure of me to give me a hug when I first saw him, but was more than eager to introduce me to Lightning McQueen and the rest of his cars from his favorite movie.

Since coming back, things have been pretty busy at the site. We rented a boom lift for a week or so to put up all the high stuff (sub-fascia, soffit, fascia) that would have been difficult or impossible to do with scaffold or ladders. A little testy at times, not so fun when the wind picks up and you are bouncing around 20 feet in the air, but overall worked out well. The plumbing has passed inspection and the mechanical is just about done. Electrician should be done within a week or so. We continue to plug away at little stuff and put on siding when we can, though the weather this week might limit that. Current highs are topping out around 15 or so, but the site is kind of exposed and windy, so we get quite the chill.

On a good cold note, got to go snowshoeing for the first real time last week up at Rocky Mountain NP. Was a lot of fun, though the trail was a bit heavily used and compacted, so only really needed the snowshoes in certain spots. Planning on going some more and would like to do a hut trip at some point before the winter is over if anyone wants to come out and play in the snow...Unfortunately, no pictures from the trip due to the camera batteries dying in the cold.

Currently reading the book "Marley and Me" by John Grogan, about a family and their excitable/destructive lab. It's a pretty good book, up there with Bill Bryson's on my list of fav's, so definitely recommend it.

Videos

On one of our volunteer days, we had a pair of communications students come out and shoot some video at our site. You can check it out here. The girl doing the talking is actually from Des Moines and did her undergrad at ISU. Of course that initially caused me to kick her off the site, but then she told me that she would go to Iowa City on the weekends and liked it better there, so was allowed to stay. Anyway, I make two appearances (i.e. the star of the video) Just don't blink cuz you might miss it.

This next one I found utterly disturbing.

Lots-o-snow

So, apparently it snows here in Colorado. Got about 6 inches or so the other day and have another 2-4 coming tonight and tomorrow. That's just down here in Boulder, couple feet of the white stuff up in the mountains. Would have made for a good opportunity to go play up there, but those plans got called off following a rough day at the gym playing basketball. Managed to pull a hamstring, sprain an ankle and turn my left knee and hand into an interesting shade of purple. I remember the hit that caused the knee, but really have no idea about the hand. Nothing too serious, just the kind of things that make the idea of learning to snowboard/fall down repeatedly learning to snowboard not sound so good. Probably should also learn to stop after the first injury instead of trying to break some sort of record.

At work we are running out of indoor things to do, so will either be out in the cold or slowing down quite a bit. Either way, have another week and a half before the affiliate shuts down for Christmas and will be heading back to Iowa where I'm sure the weather is nicer this time of year...

Last couple of weeks

Just the slab, walls off to the left on the platform we made


First floor walls up


Where things stand now. Notice the scaffold on the right. I will spend the next several weeks taking down and putting all of it back up again for the siding, then repeating the process when we paint...fun


And of course, baby Ella

So, the last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful. At work, the house went from the slab to having the roof framed and sheathed in about two and a half weeks. I'm still convinced we could have done it in not much more time by doing an impromptu blitz build of our own given that we have around 100 volunteer groups on our wait list, but oh well. About half-way done with window installation and have all the siding set to be delivered on Tuesday. Will still be outside a good chunk of this winter putting all of that on. Am putting together a slide show of the building going up. Have been taking pictures every so often from the same spot across the street. Have it on power point, will try to figure out a good way to include it on here.

Outside of work, went and saw Bob Schneider down in Denver a couple weeks ago. Great show, played every song you could ever want to hear and some I hadn't heard before. Had our first snowfall down here last week, a good 5 inches to wake up to. Though that didn't compare to the 21 inches the night before of my new niece Ella Elisabeth. Good segway huh? Speaking of which, bout got run over by 4 guys rolling around on some segway scooters through downtown a couple weeks ago. And an even better tangent...Back to Ella. Not sure anyone reading this doesn't have all the details already, but if so, 8 lbs, 21 inches, born 1:34 am last Tuesday. Will get to see her when I head back for Christmas.

Other random thoughts. Next session of indoor sand volleyball starts this week, so can close my eyes and feel like its summer again. Only downside is that they like to have the end of the season tournament on Saturdays, doesn't fit so well with my Habitat build schedule. Christmas wish list: this kind of money: when I ran into the segway scooters was going to check out a new townhome that our mechanical contractor is working on to see how they used air to air heat exchangers that we are thinking about using. Long story short, this 3 story townhome a block from my place is being sold for 1.4 million...to someone who won't even live in it. Apparently they have a daughter that is starting at CU and they wanted to have a place to stay when they come to visit her. I am pretty sure I will never live in that kind of financial world.

E-Town show

Went and saw a taping of the show E-Town tonight. It is a nationally syndicated music show based out of the Boulder Theater 5 blocks from my new place. Had some pretty good performances from Matt Nathanson and Ian Ball of the band Gomez . Had the other option of going down to Evergreen to see Hello Dave and The Nadas, but figured they come around more frequently and wanted to finally go to one of the e-town tapings. Gotta like being so close to so much good music.

On another note, both foundations are now poured and we can start putting up walls on Building E. Unfortunately, by "we" I mean a framing company, as it has been decided that we need to speed up the process due to previously mentioned delays. I am not in favor of nor too happy with this decision, but it was beyond my pay grade, so what can you do. Just a little frustrating to not be allowed to do what you were hired to do in the first place...

More pics

Post-tension cables and radon mitigation ready to go


Japhy and cakes hanging out on roommate Jill's bed


I like this dog


All our walls on site cocooned up, waiting to go on the foundation


what you don't want to have happen during an excavation: old piece of the gas line...

New place, cruddy day

So, finally found a new place to live. Just a block off of Pearl St, which is the main downtown street here in Boulder. Now live within walking distance of downtown, grocery stores, ymca, target, work and most importantly the newly renovated REI store. Living with two girls and two dogs. The dogs are both labs and a lot of fun. Roommates are cool too, but the key here is I get to play with the dogs:)

Now for the cruddy day part. Good news is that the plumbing is done and that the foundation guys were out setting up forms today. The radon mitigation system that I was in charge of putting together also needed to be installed today. And then I got sick this morning and had to go home. Did the best I could to show the rest of the team what needed to be done, but didn't want to subject them to the next round of vomiting, so had to go. Feeling better though after sleeping through the afternoon. Also, as I'm sure some of you have heard, the computers crashed for the world series ticket sales, so still going to try to get some when they go on sale again tomorrow. Highly doubt I will get them, but that would be a lot of fun. I just missed out on the last time the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, so will be nice to be around all the excitement.

Other than that, things are well, we will have the foundation for building E poured this week and hopefully start laying out walls next week. Had our first snow fall down here in town, it didn't stick, but it did up in the foothills, so starting to get the wintery scene going.

Pics for Pa

Upon discovering the New Belgium Brewery was closed on the day I was there...


Hard at work on top of the pile while the volunteers took care of the nailing.


What 5 homes look like.

Memory stick reader thing is working better, so was able to get some pics up. Still looking for a new place to live at the moment. Doing so cheaply in Boulder is not an easy task, but I guess there are places worse off, so I can't really complain. Went to a Damien Rice concert this past Monday, that was pretty good.

We have ran out of time at the armory, but still don't have the foundation in due to continuing issues with contractors, so am in the process of building a platform on site to store the walls until that gets taken care of, going to attempt to move them all over a couple blocks to the site throughout this week.

Found another new musician: http://www.myspace.com/joshritter
Like the last two songs on there at least if you want to check it out. Get a lot of good music coming through here in Boulder. Have some smaller venues that get some good artists that are on the up and coming phase.

Oh and the reasoning behind the first picture, went up to Fort Collins for a sustainable living fair last weekend with Mike, Abigail, and little Robby. Some good stuff, but it was a two day event and most of the stuff I was interested in took place on the other day, oh well.

Volleyball

So just finished up my volleyball league at the indoor sand courts. Had the end of the season "tournament" last night, with a somewhat questionable format. Top 8 teams in the league got split into two groups that played a pool format, one game against the other three teams in your pool. Top two from each pool advance. That part is fine, but then after that, it didn't become a playoff format, just another 1 game pool play. As it played out, we won all three in our first pool, then went 2-1 in the second pool. The team we lost to won all three of their's so got 1st place and we got second. We beat them in the first pool, however, so were 1-1 against them on the night, but the order of the wins decided who was 1st. Not that it's a big deal, 1st got a $30 gift certificate there and 2nd got $20, huge prizes...but would like to play an actual 3 game match to decide that stuff. Playing a lot better and getting some big hits, so I guess all is good.

Success, sort of

Lots of hail

Professional guy who "turned" the caber everyone else couldn't get
Yeah! we have a foundation. Too bad this one is going to sit there until next spring and the one we have the full permits to work on, the plumber is being dumb about things

Couldn't find a new cable for my camera, but did find a USB adapter for the memory card, so in a round about way, can get pics off my camera. Doesn't like some of the pictures though for some reason, so refused to copy them.